Undergraduate Research Blog

Submit to The Tower by Nov 1st!

Apply for Spring 2012 PURA!

Apply for Fall 2011 PURA Today!

Apply for the Presidential Undergraduate Research Award (PURA) at Georgia Tech today! Submissions for Fall 2011 are due May 20, 2011 at this link. 

A list of things to include in your proposal is included below, courtesy of UROP. Remember that you are writing to an audience that is not necessarily an expert in your field. Please be sure to write so that a well-informed student or faculty member can understand your proposal without looking up more information. 

Things to include in proposal:

• Overview of proposed work (proposals should be no more than 2 pages long)
• Objective and goals for the semester
• Related work and any background you know about project
• Methods and techniques to be used, software to be used or developed, types of media or resources to be used
• How any past research in the same area that you participated in relates to this work
• Location of work if not at Georgia Tech
• Name of any co-mentor who is a graduate student or post-doc
• If the project is within an undergraduate team setting describe your individual role and how it relates to the project as a whole

Best of luck with your application!

Michael Chen
Editor-in-Chief
The Tower Undergraduate Research Journal

Undergraduate Opportunity in Feamster Lab

My name is Nick Feamster; I am an associate professor in the School of Computer Science.  I work on a variety of different topics in networking.  These days, my lab is focusing on two exciting areas of computer networking, related to a million-dollar research grant that we recently received from Google: (1) the performance and usage of home networks, and (2) monitoring and circumventing censorship in countries around the world.  Both of these areas are becoming increasingly important, high-impact areas with plenty of room for new ideas.  The Federal Communications Commission has initiated a study of broadband access networks across the country, and we are heavily engaged in that study, which will help us better understand the performance of access networks and how people use them.  We are also designing communications networks that are more robust to censorship, in light of recent events in Egypt (and as have been going on in China for many years).

More generally, my lab in the School of Computer Science (http://gtnoise.net/) focuses on developing new algorithms, protocols, and systems for the current and next-generation Internet, with a specific focus on network operations and security. Our work ranges from fighting the Internet’s cybercriminals (spam, phishing, etc.) to improving Internet availability to making networks easier to diagnose and operate.

I have a very strong interest in mentoring undergraduates: one undergraduate I mentored, Megan Elmore, is now a Ph.D. student at Stanford University.  I’d like to see more of our undergraduates consider careers in research and academia, and I welcome the opportunity to talk to any interested undergraduates about pursuing research either informally or in the context of one of the exciting areas above.  I also encourage you to sign up for CS 4235 (Computer Security) this coming fall to learn more about these and other exciting areas; that class should offer an opportunity to work on research problems, as well.

Computational Biology Research

Not all the research that happens on campus happens in the biomed quad!  This is a screenshot of the branches and merges of the codebase I work on in my undergraduate research.

I’m working on a bioinformatics project, with three primary contacts on campus: Dr. Christine Heitsch in the Math department, Dr. David A. Bader in the College of Computing, and Dr. Steve Harvey in the school of Biology.

We’re trying to take an unpaired RNA sequence of A, U, C, and G nucleotides and predict the secondary structure they form, or which bases pair with which other bases.  The program we’ve written to do this is called gtfold, which is freely available on GitHub.

As a CS major, my contributions to the project revolve around the code and algorithms that make these predictions.  It’s great to have mathematicians, biologists, and computer scientists in the same room working on these problems.  We’re hoping to get a new paper presenting the program published soon!

Andrew Ash
Computer Science 2011
www.andrewash.com 

The Tower chats with Gary Schuster

Why Pursue Undergraduate Research?

An interview with Professor Gary Schuster

by David Lowry

On September 1^st, 2006, Gary B. Schuster succeeded Jean Lou Chameau as the Provost, Georgia Tech’s chief academic officer. Dr. Schuster holds a bachelor of science in chemistry from Clarkson University and a PhD in chemistry from the University of Rochester. He spent 20 years at the University of Illinois before becoming the Dean of the College of Sciences and professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech in 1994. He was named the Casser Woolley char of chemistry and biochemistry at Georgia Tech in 2001 as well as attaining other merits. On September 1^st of this year, Rafael L. Bras stepped up to serve as the next Provost.

The Tower spoke with Dr. Schuster about his experiences, his impressions of undergraduate research at Georgia Tech, and the challenges that await the progress of undergraduate research in the future. Dr. Schuster began by talking about how he got to where he is today.

Well, it’s a long journey. I was always interested in science and technology, and two things happened to me as a kid. One is that I had a really good chemistry teacher in high school. Do you know how important that is? The second thing is that I had a neighbor that was an electrical engineer. I grew up in New York, and he designed avionics in jets for an aerospace company. That was hot stuff at the time. So I got to know him pretty well and said, “Wow, that’s pretty interesting.” And I decided that’s what I wanted to do. So I started in an engineering program and had to take a course called engineering drafting. The requirements of the course included that we have to be able to draw complex objects and neatly label them in pen. This is way before computer aided design, I should add. And in a naïve sort of way, I came to the conclusion that that’s what engineering was, and I didn’t want any part of that.

Undergraduate research can be a daunting and frightening experience, yet most who perform it would say it had a profound impact on their careers. To some, research provides an opportunity to experience new areas of science they haven’t experienced before. Others might find that their original interests are not what they expected. After Dr. Schuster left engineering, he found chemistry through elementary research.

About the same time, we were doing an undergraduate experiment in undergraduate organic chemistry. It was pretty simple; we were converting a carboxylic acid into an ester. The good thing about that experiment is that you got to choose the carboxylic acid and the alcohol to make the ester.  Fortunately, I chose valeric acid, which is pentanoic acid, which is one of the foulest smelling things you can imagine. It smells so bad that you can’t describe it in polite company. And naively, I chose decided to make the ethyl ester that turned it into something that smelled fruity and fragrant, I think pineapply. One simple reaction turned this foul smelling thing into something that smelled like pineapple. That, in a way, was like a research project, and with my dislike of engineering drawing and my like of high school chemistry, I decided to give chemistry a shot.

The key aspect of research is that it is completely different than the material covered in classes. The success of an undergraduate research project isn’t measured solely by the discovery of new knowledge; sometimes the greatest benefit is a deeper connection with the material and a good assurance of a chosen profession. Dr. Schuster’s experiences with undergraduate research helped him confirm his choice of becoming a research chemist.

As an undergraduate I did undergraduate research that really hooked me onto the field, though I wasn’t particularly successful. It was in polymer chemistry. The important part was the 180 degree rotation between being an undergraduate student and an undergraduate researcher. As a student, in classes, you are focusing on what is already known. 180 degrees around, you’re not trying to learn what’s already known—you’re trying to add to the body of knowledge, to find the unknown. So I went to graduate school and did research on organic photochemistry.

Should everyone perform research? It’s certainly true that it’s easier to pursue research in some areas than others, and not everyone likes research. The international plan and the undergraduate research plan both serve to give Georgia Tech students additional opportunities. Both of these plans were introduced while Dr. Schuster was Dean of the College of Sciences.

I think one of the goals that Georgia Tech should have is to provide the opportunity to every student to participate in research. Like I said, it’s this 180 degree change. And for a lot of people, it’s really intoxicating. It is an eye-opening experience. And if you happen to be fortunate enough as an undergraduate to actually make a discovery, it’s usually enough to trap somebody into a career for the rest of their lives.

But how do you actually get involved?  Dr. Schuster says it’s a matter of determination.

I think that each student who is interested in pursuing undergraduate research can get connected in one way or another. I think the easiest way is to knock on a faculty-member’s door and say, “I’m here and I’ll work for free.” I don’t know how many doors you’ll hit, but you’ll eventually hit someone who would say, “Sure.”

That’s always exciting. I think it’s more exciting for the student than for the faculty, because the undergraduate spends more time learning than getting things done. But that’s why we’re called a university: these people are supposed to learn how to do things.

One of the most common criticisms about research is that it is either mundane or ‘ivory tower’ –useless to the rest of the world. The problem with research is that long term ramifications of current research are unknown.

There’s an analogy that I like to use: the fire hydrant analogy. I’m sure the city of Atlanta must spend millions of dollars maintaining and building fire hydrants. Wouldn’t they save lots of money if they only put fire hydrants where the fires will be? Everyone immediately sees the problem with that question- we don’t know where the fires will be. You have to put the fire hydrants everywhere. Similarly, we can’t do research just in the things that are important. We know that some things will be important, so we have to spread research pretty broadly. You know that occasionally, one of them will catch on fire, you just don’t know which one.

Georgia Tech is a strong research institution. Groundbreaking research occurs in dozens of labs across campus. In 2008 alone, Georgia Tech devoted nearly $400 million to research. There are some unique opportunities for research at Tech as well.

I think students should take advantage the strength between science and engineering. Even the public policy at Tech is focused on engineering. We have ‘History of Science and Technology.’  You have to give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, right? And as a student of Georgia Tech, the main area of focus should be the interaction of some discipline with science with engineering, whether it’s management, or history, of communications. It’s a good opportunity.

Ultimately, research provides a good opportunity to experience a discipline differently. As are most things outside of textbooks, the outcomes of research are uncertain. But they are certainly rewarding. Dr. Schuster offers some closing remarks:

At some point in your life, you’ll discover that you get older. I just had my 64^th birthday. If you listen to my story, the only thing I ever really chose was to be a research scientist. And the conversion of pentanoic acid into ethyl pentanoate really sparked that interest. You never know when it’s going to happen to you. As I said, I was always curious, and that undergraduate research experience really focused that experience.

Since retiring from the position of Provost, Dr. Schuster has returned to be a full-time researcher and professor. He is currently looking at research projects including oxidated damage to DNA, the use of DNA as a template for conductive polymers, and the modeling of self-organizing systems that might have lead to the first biopolymers of life. The Tower would like to thank Dr. Schuster for his time and his guidance.

The quotes above are reworded and shortened for this interview.

(Source: gttower.org)

Georgia Tech Progress and Service Award

Dear Students: 

The Georgia Tech Progress and Service Award was established by the Undergraduate Student Government Association to acknowledge students who have made a significant impact on the Tech community and recognize undergraduate students who most portray the ideals of Progress and Service in their careers on campus.

This award, which includes a stipend of $1000 each, will be granted to two undergraduate students and will be presented to the recipients at Up with the White & Gold on April 28, 2011. If you feel that you have made a significant contribution to the Tech community, I encourage you to apply for this prestigious recognition. Applications are due April 1 at 5 PM. 

If you have any questions about this award, you may contact Akshar Patel, SGA Academic Affairs Board member, at avpatel@gatech.edu. See the attached file of the complete application or for more information go to http://www.sga.gatech.edu/undergraduate Thank you!

—

Austen Edwards
International Affairs and Public Policy
Georgia Institute of Technology
austen.o.edwards@gatech.edu